By now, some of you have surely seen the National Organization for Marriage’s anti-gay marriage commercials being aired across the nation in response to recent developments in Vermont and Iowa. If not, you can see them online here. The Human Rights Campaign has already rebutted the commercial’s claims very well, so I won’t go into that except to say Mother Jones wrote extensively about the case involving the “California doctor” who says she’s forced to choose “between my faith and my job.”
Like others in the blogosphere, I thought the commercial was pretty heinous, not to mention factually inaccurate. But my jaw really dropped when I went to NOM‘s site and read the suggested “talking points” supporters can use when confronted by pro-gay marriage folks. Here’s one gem: “We need a marriage amendment to settle the gay marriage issue once and for all, so we don’t have it in our face every day for the next ten years.” That’s right: they said “in our face.” I’m taking this to mean, “Why can’t you people just go back in the closet and stop asking for rights?” That said, I agree with NOM. We do need a marriage amendment. But if this map is any indication, I don’t think it’ll be the amendment NOM is hoping for.
Another online amusement: NOM lists answers supporters can give to common, but uncomfortable, questions such as “Are you a bigot?” and “Isn’t the ban on gay marriage like bans on interracial marriage?” The suggested answers really speak for themselves. Apparently banning interracial marriage was about “keeping two races apart so one race could oppress the other.” And gay marriage has absolutely nothing to with keeping two kinds of people apart or oppressing one of them, right? Right. Seriously, the rest of the questions and answers are pretty priceless. You can check them out here.
